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This epilogue focuses on “Forked Deer.” It is one of very few fiddle tunes that now flourish in southern fiddle styles ranging from straightforward to quite fancy, and throughout the United States—in old-time fiddling in the Upper South, in exuberant West Virginia styles, and in the melodic improvisations of the modern contest fiddling originating in Texas. Both the title and the melody of “Forked Deer” enter the historical record in George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels. Like most southern fiddle tunes, however, “Forked Deer” did not make it into the nineteenth-century mainstream of instrumental anthologies. In fact, this tune found its way into just one publication later in that century. The chapter then considers the title “Forked Deer.” The multivalence of the title “Forked Deer” plus the particular retitling of the tune touch most of the normal categories for fiddle tune titles in the American South.

This chapter zeroes in on the modern fiddle contest for a closer look at what happens at these events. More particularly, the chapter focuses on the fiddle contests as a competition—what the contests claim to be about and what they mean for the participants. The chapter looks at, for example, the fact that despite the fiddle contests being a form of competition, many fiddlers and other musicians that attend the contests regularly never compete. Some of the more overt business of fiddle contests includes the venues in which they take place, how the competitors are divided into several competition brackets, and how these events proceed from start to finish. The chapter also takes a look at two different yet representative small contests, afterwards moving further at the three large and important ones.

This chapter focuses on understanding the collective backgrounds, activities, and tastes of today’s fiddlers. The chapter goes through several interviews, all of which give a more profound view and perspective on the effect that these fiddle contests have on the culture of music across the South. The discoveries made in these interviews are then tabled according to each interviewee’s style of fiddling—although some of these categories may overlap. The main interview questions and answers are discussed throughout the chapter, with the questions being the subheadings in this chapter. These questions range from the fiddler’s background, their music influences and inspirations, down to the value of fiddling contests and the support that the community has for fiddling—what values does it promote and how do its traditions create these values.

This chapter introduces the concept of the American fiddle contests, citing an example that happens once a year in the second-largest shopping mall in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Fiddle contests are often composed of music, dance, and a lot of community engagement. Most the participants and audience members in these fiddle contests behave like old friends at a neighborhood barbecue or a family reunion. This chapter then traces the roots of these American fiddling contest from the late-eighteenth-century Scotland—where it tries to uncover how this tradition was passed during the migration to America—down to mid-twentieth century America. How has this tradition affected the overall culture of America, and how has changed affected the tradition? These are questions answered in this first chapter.

This chapter focuses more on the other aspects of these fiddle contests, namely the jamming, eating, camping, purchasing, talking, and laughing. The chapter suggests that it is these instances of community and camaraderie that are really the essence of what these fiddle contest are all about. In fact most participants agree that jamming and catching up with old friends—as well as making new ones—is one of the most important aspects of these events. In fact even the shortest of these successful contests allow overnight stays, but since the fiddle world is overall a blue-collar cultural complex, most participants find themselves sleeping in recreational vehicles or campers rather than in tents. Many of the contests are often held outdoors, however there are provisions available to allow the event to continue in case the weather begins to deteriorate.

Some groups of fiddlers attended the same fiddle contests and events, and knew, or knew of, each other. Though they were strongly individual musical personalities, they did not learn and play in a vacuum. There were many fiddlers. Many fiddle contests were advertised in newspapers within the state, particularly in 1900–40, but only a few of the newspaper reports contained any information about the fiddlers and the tunes they played. The descriptions that follow will suggest something about the quantity of the fiddlers and the interest in the music to supplement the recorded tunes transcribed in the rest of this book.

Doc Bailey of Winona recommended this group to Vocalion. They recorded two tunes, “Evening Shade Waltz” and “North East Texas,” in Memphis in February 1930. On the record label, fiddlers Luther Milner and Luther Curtis were both misidentified as “Luke.” Lonnie Ellis remembers Lute Milner and Lute Curtis as Attala County residents, both around 50 years of age at the time they recorded.

Grover O’Briant (11/16/1912–05/07/1995) played fiddle, guitar, banjo, harmonica, piano, and mandolin, and sang very well. Although he never recorded commercially, family recordings show that he was quite accomplished on guitar and fiddle. He acquired a reel-to-reel recorder in the 1960s and his son Jerry kept the recordings. O’Briant remembered attending the Kosciusko fiddle contest in 1920, as a child of nine or ten. He somewhat unsuccessfully tried to revive it in the 1970s and then succeeded in getting it going again in 1984. He emceed and played in the contest. The Grand Champion Trophy for the Natchez Trace Festival was named for him. Homer Grice was a friend and lived nearby. From the 1940s through the 1970s Grover and Homer visited and played often. Grice also competed in Kosciusko contests and was quite intent on winning.

In 1928 “Floyd Ming and His Pep Steppers” recorded for Victor Records. Fiddler Hoyt Ming, from Choctaw County, and his wife Rozelle recorded again in 1973 and appeared in Washington, DC at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. This essay documents their recordings, life, and music.

As a successful dealer in phonograph records, Doc Bailey was well placed to recommend local artists to record companies. Looking back on his wheeling and dealing, he recalled putting twenty-one men on record. Narmour & Smith, the Ray Brothers, the Mississippi ’Possum Hunters, Clardy & Clements, the Milner-Curtis group, and the Central Mississippi Quartet account for seventeen of these musicians.